journalists without [bleep] detectors

Suppose you picked up your morning newspaper, and read that the local softball team, sponsored by Ken's Transmission Specialists, had won the World Series.

"That doesn't seem right," you might say to yourself. The boys from Ken's are as good as any nine men when it comes to pounding the Budweiser, but in terms of athletic ability.... And didn't some team from Boston just win the Series? Puzzled, you read on. The story explains that the World Series took place in the parking lot behind Sal's Discount Suds.

At this point you realize that the story is complete-- well, "nonsense" is the polite term. You realize that the editor of the sports page is incompetent, and you think seriously about cancelling your subscription. Right?

Then you probably won't be impressed with the editors in St. Louis who gave the OK to a story that begins:

A couple of firsts: Two women were ordained as Roman Catholic priests Sunday in St. Louis -- and the ordination was in a synagogue.

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Novus, you have a point about the Protestants. At least they had the integrity and intellectual honesty to actually walk out of the Church and declare themselves as outside of Her. But now today we have a whole crop of people who deceitfully proclaim to be "Catholic and (fill the blank)" - pro-abortion, gay marriage, womens' ordination, and on and on it goes. Ironic that these two women "priests" are now to pastor a Unitarian faith community. (take Christ out of the picture while they're at it.)

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 3:02 PM ET USA

But Catholic ordinations are different than protestant ordinations. Protestants who claim to be protestant don't claim to be Catholic. And they don't claim the same status as Catholic priests.
Catholic ordinations are very much legally defined, just not by the legal government in the US. They're defined by a more important set of rules - with the authority of Christ Himself. At least with the Reformation, people had the fortitude to not call themselves Catholic when they left the Church.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 2:52 PM ET USA

Yes, but with the Protestant ordinations, while clearly invalid in our eyes (and presumably in God's eyes!) are at least recognised within their own denominations. If a journalist knows (as these clearly do) that all authorities of the church in which these women claim to be members reject these 'ordinations' out of hand, they should make this clear in their language. They don't.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 2:35 PM ET USA

Forgive me for saying so myself, but "Poor Soul's" point illustrates the one I was making. In the case of Protestant ordinations, which have no validity, should the journalist write, "An Protestant man pretended to be ordained yesterday?" These aren't his calls to make, though he should - as was done in the Post Chronicle story that this is linked to - bring out in the story any notable objections.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 1:23 PM ET USA

Good point, but the same also applies to any protestant, so called, "ordination" that is also illicit , invalid and void of direct Apostolic Succession.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 12:40 PM ET USA

It was impressive enough. If they said, "Two women pretended to be ordained," or some such, that's editorializing. Journalists would imply a judgment as to whose definition of "ordination" is correct. This centers on a religious issue, much trickier to handle than your World Series example, since the Series has a legally recognized definition. Should journalists decide who's right about ordination? And to be fair, they DID cover full well the Chuch's non-recognition of these "ordinations.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 12:19 PM ET USA

They aren't selling subscriptions, they're selling an agenda.

Posted by: -
Nov. 12, 2007 11:57 AM ET USA

The story your link leads to is from the Post Chronicle, and is full of unquotes from a story in the St.Louis Post-Dispatch, whose original headline said the ordination was "disputed". By the way, the unedited text from the St.Louis Post-Dispatch is available in today's news section of CWN. The staff of the Post Chronicle also chose not to mention that the synagogue in question is headed by a woman. So many women involved would seem to point to a feminist conspiracy, thought the PC's staff.

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